Posts tagged “narrowboats”

Last weekend, I went out wearing a tee-shirt and my ‘sun hat’ for the first time this year, it was springtime at last! I had advanced knowledge of narrowboats on the canal and they make for a colourful picture. The light was quite harsh and you can’t always choose which way to shoot. I took some shots into the sun which isn’t always a very good idea.

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I went to Tipton Canal Festival on Sunday and that was guaranteed to give me some multi-coloured shots as the brightly coloured narrowboats break up the dull canal scenes. It was quite a cloudy sky but the sun was breaking through at times. Mostly I was looking for shots where I could use a wide open aperture and zoom in on my subject. I used the 18 – 105mm lens to give me a little versatility when it came to zooming in.

Prime lens

My 35mm prime lens gives me a really wide aperture, ideal for this shot of the bluebells. A prime lens doesn’t zoom and so you have to bend down for a shot like this and for other shots you walk around a lot rather than zoom. (more…)

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I drove to Tipton yesterday to photograph the boat gathering. As I drove, it poured with rain. Well, it is a bank holiday weekend. It was cloudy when I got there but the rain had stopped and so I wandered along the canal. (more…)

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Autumn gives me a variation of colours to photograph, but after a while I want something different. A subject that will look good with the autumn colours as the backdrop. It’s the same with sunsets, they are great for a backdrop but not as the subject of the photograph. (more…)

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I went to the Tipton canal festival yesterday. I had been looking forward to it, I should have gone there on Saturday when it was sunny. Parking was a problem last year and it was even worse this year with police no parking cones out where I intended to park. I still managed to take a few photos. (more…)

Have you ever bought a friend a drink or a meal, just because you can? If we have more than enough money for our needs we can afford to be generous and not only treat our friends but give a little to people less fortunate that we don’t even know. To me, that’s what socialism is about. (more…)

In the Black Country, we have no shortage of canals. This is the Walsall Canal at Ocker Hill, that runs through Tipton, Wednesbury, Darlaston and ends up at Walsall Art gallery. It’s an interesting picture, but a little messy because there are so many reflections on the water. (more…)

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My photography, this summer has been hampered by cloudy skies and rain. Next weekend, I hope to photograph a canal and narrowboat festival and so really need some better weather. The forecast is looking better. (more…)

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I photographed this boat last week. I wanted it in fairly sharp focus so I could read the name. The wind was blowing the tarpaulin around so, I need to freeze the movement. I needed a fast shutter speed. It was a little cloudy, so raising the ISO would help too. I just selected a scene mode and the sports setting gave me everything I needed. (more…)

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The Black Country has miles of canals. These water filled channels, cut through the Black Country in the 18th century provided a means of transport at the beginning of the industrial revolution. Now they are used for recreational purposes and by narrowboats traders. (more…)

The weather finally improved at Easter for a narrow-boat gathering at Easter. It was still cloudy which gave poor light, but I raised the ISO on my camera and took lots of pictures. It’s a good idea to use a wide aperture and get quite close with narrow-boats. (more…)

On Sunday, I took to the local canals to take photos of narrow-boats. It was early afternoon when I took this picture and you can see quite long shadows. The sun was south of me and quite bright. The colours are changing now and becoming much brighter. The grass is very green after all the rain. I’m shooting westerly for this picture. (more…)

I have used photos of the canal before with narrowboats, but they aren’t seen too often. We went back to these locks on Sunday and two boats were going through the lock. The light wasn’t very good and it did start to pour with rain. That narrow boat is 57 feet long and they hired it for a few days. (more…)

I took this shot a number of times, in the opposite direction, but this one seems better. Would it be better symmetrical? Would it be better zoomed in more? I tried all the different options and this one seemed the best! (more…)

I took this photo yesterday and I’m a little intrigued by the canal and why that bridge is so wide. Maybe it was a busy route in Victorian times when the canal was built. The tow path all down that canal seems wider than usual. There is a canal off to the left that’s overgrowth and also an ‘arm’ off to the right. I think this canal was called the ‘Wednesbury Oak loop’ and was meant to meander around serving different coal pits. It’s straight here, but farther on it does meander around. (more…)